Lone Republican Senator blocking a million-plus Americans from receiving unemployment benefitsSarah Palin stormed the bestseller list last year with "Going Rogue"-a political memoir whose title coyly referenced the former GOP vice presidential nominee's supposed defiance of the consultants running the McCain campaign. But this year we have a new poster boy for the Going Rogue playbook: GOP Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky. For the past week, Bunning has been single-handedly blocking more than a million Americans from receiving unemployment and COBRA health insurance benefits, as of today, when their benefits funded under the 2009 stimulus law run out. The suspension of benefits affects everyone from doctors to government employees.

Since cutting health and unemployment benefits isn't the most popular thing to do in a job-starved recession, the Senate had reached near unanimity on extending these programs. But near-unanimous isn't enough when senators are looking to stretch out the lifespan of benefits about to lapse-they need to reach unanimous consent. And that requirement has delivered a great deal of power into Bunning's hands-- power that has allowed him to block the extension until the Senate find $10.3 billion in spending cuts elsewhere to fund the safety-net spending.

$10.3 billion is such a piddling amount for something like this, but this is a rare situation where grandstanding might have an actual effect. I'd hazard a guess and say he is doing this to impress the Tea Baggers rather than for any legitimate belief in the importance of it, but that's just me being cynical...

Bunning is a giant douchebag who is giving the middle finger to people less fortunate than himself. He HATES deficits! yea, when there is a democrat in the white house. He sure didn't mind deficits under Bush.. in fact he voted for many things that increased the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars..

This is obstruction at its finest and he should be ashamed. If he was facing re-election he would not be doing this. He is retiring and instead of going out with dignity he has decided to say eff you! to his constituents.. nice.

Im sure the people who have lost their job and are looking at having no income coming in are just thrilled with him..

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There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far~ ruminations

We dont like being poor.We aint lazy.THERES NOTHING HERE. Im lucky. I make 11-COUNT EM-11 dollars an hour at a canning factory in Michigan...Southwest Michigan.Been there 23 years. Near Kalamazoo. There are NO jobs. ITS A DEAD STATE. We aint lazy. All the jobs are just leaving. To the south. And Mexico.

We dont like being poor.We aint lazy.THERES NOTHING HERE. Im lucky. I make 11-COUNT EM-11 dollars an hour at a canning factory in Michigan...Southwest Michigan.Been there 23 years. Near Kalamazoo. There are NO jobs. ITS A DEAD STATE. We aint lazy. All the jobs are just leaving. To the south. And Mexico.

WERE DYING HERE,PEOPLE!

You're a Michigander, RC? Never noticed that. Me too. Live in St. Louis now though. And yeah, sad state of affairs in a lot of Michigan. It seems like what happened in the UP a long ways back (when the mines dried up) is now happening to the lower half. We should stick together on this crap.

We dont like being poor.We aint lazy.THERES NOTHING HERE. Im lucky. I make 11-COUNT EM-11 dollars an hour at a canning factory in Michigan...Southwest Michigan.Been there 23 years. Near Kalamazoo. There are NO jobs. ITS A DEAD STATE. We aint lazy. All the jobs are just leaving. To the south. And Mexico.

WERE DYING HERE,PEOPLE!

You're a Michigander, RC? Never noticed that. Me too. Live in St. Louis now though. And yeah, sad state of affairs in a lot of Michigan. It seems like what happened in the UP a long ways back (when the mines dried up) is now happening to the lower half. We should stick together on this crap.

Born In NYC-raised in Michigan (since 1970). An evil,mean brew! Im feircly loyal to Michigan! (Not to the goverment-to my fellow Michiganders-if the US dont watch out--the Michigan Militia will clean house!-I was a member once-but quit-too many Nazis. Whatta ya gonna do? I aint into racism....)

I dont live in any of the states listed but If I did you can bet I would be firing off a very angry letter to my senator letting him/her know what I think about them.

I find it funny that these republicans are perfectly content to sit back and let bunning take all the heat. He was obstructing the process by not letting it come up for a vote but his fellow republicans are just as nasty as he is. maybe worse.

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There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far~ ruminations

I totally disgree. These aren't jobs. if the government is paying for them the yare being paid for either by taxing other citizens or borrowing them.

more to the point, they can make all the jobs they want, just pay for them by taking the funds from somewhere else in the budget!! the same way everyone does in their lives and how budgets have been run since the dawn of time. you can't just add on and add on.

JIm bunning is only 1 of the hundreds of millionaire crooks making 6 figures salaries by taking 33% of YOUR paycheck to do all sorts of stuff that have nothing to do with anything!

scapegoat him all you want. He was right to do what he did. PAY AS YOU GO

I totally disgree. These aren't jobs. if the government is paying for them the yare being paid for either by taxing other citizens or borrowing them.

more to the point, they can make all the jobs they want, just pay for them by taking the funds from somewhere else in the budget!! the same way everyone does in their lives and how budgets have been run since the dawn of time. you can't just add on and add on.

JIm bunning is only 1 of the hundreds of millionaire crooks making 6 figures salaries by taking 33% of YOUR paycheck to do all sorts of stuff that have nothing to do with anything!

scapegoat him all you want. He was right to do what he did. PAY AS YOU GO

These same scumbags also have stock in corprations that pull up and haul tail to Mexico or India-leaving hundreds of people without jobs. Unemployment is given to people who WORK....a bum on the street dont qualify. Hardworking taxpayers who lose their jobs because these scumbags leave to hire cheap labor overseas. I'm lucky-I still have a job. The biggest factory in town-Welchs-where much of my family have worked for over 50 years-is closing shop-no one seems to know why exactly. The last person to leave Michigan-turn off the lights.

It is a waste to have all these people not working, I just don't think we should give them jobs while ALSO having a 4 trillion dollar budget and that's what Bunning was saying. lets pay them by firing beaurocrats instead of borrowing the money or watering down the dollar by printing more greenbacks